What Should I Do?

The two most important things NOT TO DO is continue using your computer if it’s still working. And DO NOT try to recover the data yourself. In both cases doing either of these things will compromise our success when you bring it to us.

What Is Data Recovery

The simplest definition of Data Recovery is that your hard drive has a fault, and the information on it can no longer be read by your computer. Such a fault could be either the drive itself failing, such as the drives motor or circuit board being burnt out. Or it could be data related, such as the information being “scrambled”

How is Data Recovered

Recovery is defined by three categories. 1 is a relatively simple fix, where the data can be recovered by running a set of utilities which extracts the information. Category 2 is difficult. Either the data has to be recovered in small blocks or the drive has failed and needs rebuilding. In either case recovery is very time consuming… perhaps taking two or three weeks. Category 3 is specialised, requiring the drive to be sent away to a lab. These labs are sterile environments with very sophisticated equipment. However, these facilities are seldom used, due to the cost.

How Successful is Data Recovery

Category 1 and 2 have a success rate of around 90%. Category 3 where drives are sent to a specialised lab, have a success rate of about 98%.